Nightmares
by Mechanical Zero
Summary: When Team Natsu get's attacked by Rufus, he plants Natsu's worst nightmare into his head while Natsu was defending Happy. What happens when Natsu becomes plagued by his worst nightmare and refuses to look at anyone? What does this have to do with Lucy? Let me know if I'm going to fast in the story! Disclaimer! I do not own FT!
1. Rufus's Attack

**Chapter One- **

It was just an ordinary mission. Team Natsu was to capture a bandit who was terrorized the citizens mentally. What surprised them was to find no one other than Sabertooth's Rufus Lore as the bandit.

They were in the East Forest trying to find clues on who they were dealing with, when Rufus sprung a surprise attack.

"What the hell are you doing here Rufus?" Erza asked re-quipping in her battle armor.

"Well, after the little Grand Games misfortune I had with Gray, I was kicked out of Sabortooth. So I thought, since I'm on my own, why don't I have a little fun with it while I can?" He said with a smirk, starting to put his fingers to his forehead.

"Why would they kick you out?!" Gray asked/shouted, as he started to take off his shirt.

"Since they knew I could just trick their minds, I guess they thought excommunicating me would be better. Not that I have a problem. We lost, so I don't need to be part of a week guild." He stated, looking directly at Happy.

'But you were one of the caused of them to get second place' Lucy and Natsu thought, sweat dropping.

"No I wasn't! It was Gray's fault! We would've won!" Rufus screamed the two.

"Heh forgot he could read minds" Lucy stated, as she started to grab her keys and whip.

"Well since you're here, why don't we have a little fun?" The memory mage asked, getting in a battle stance.

"What are you doing to the townspeople?!" Erza shouted, as she lunged herself onto Rufus with her swords all striking at once.

"Well I would never damage someone physically because wounds heal, so why bother? I find things much more interesting once their _broken_ from the inside out." He stated, as he started sending memory waves at the red headed mage.

She blocked the attack, but was hit against a nearby tree, sliding down the trunk, falling asleep.

"Falling asleep? I was hoping for death, but I guess it would do," He said, a little disappointed.

Lunging at Gray, he was ready to deliver his blow that would knock him into another dimension, when Natsu counterattacked and shot his fire at the mage.

Caught off guard, Rufus was now in mid-air at least 10 feet in the air, when the Ice Mage shot his attack freezing him still in the air, with ice traveling to the ground.

"You need to stop these attacks! You're damaging far to many people!" Lucy shouted, hoping he could hear her, when she opened one of her gate keys.

"Open gate: Aries!"

With a big poof, Aries appeared in front of her, looking unconfident in what she was doing.

"Sorry to disturb you! What can I do for you? I'm sorry!"

Lucy was giving her an I-don't-really-care look and told her to lift her to Rufus' height.

The whole team, minus Erza, was now in the air surrounding the defeated mage. Natsu was on the ice block where Rufus was frozen from the shoulders down, Gray on his separate platform of ice, Lucy on a pink cloud with Aries, who was cowering in front of her, hoping to be 'protecting her', and Happy in the air looking at Rufus with a scared look, because the frozen mage was staring at him and has been staring at him during the entire battle.

An idea popped into the memory bending mage's head.

"Now, I wonder what a team is without an exceed? Or even better, a _broken _exceed!" The mage asked, with his smirk getting wider.

He mentally sent waves at Happy who was trapped in the mage's mental grasp.

"HAPPY!" Natsu yelled, and jumped off the his ground and shielded the flying blue cat from whatever attack was about to hit him. He grabbed onto Happy as he was hit by the mysterious mental force, and went falling down ten feet.

He landed with a big thud! On the ground.

"Natsu! Are you okay?! I'm so sorry! I couldn't do anything! He froze my body!" Happy cried, trying to get the fallen comrade laying the ground.

"Ah it's okay Happy! It wasn't your fault! I don't even think the attack worked. I don't feeling any different!" Natsu said, trying to assure Happy he was alright, while he was getting up from the dented ground he landed in. He was just tired from being hit from ten feet of falling.

"Plus, I can't let anything happen to you! You, me, and Lucy are partners! We can't let anything happen to each other!" He said with a big grin.

"Natsu! Thank god your okay!" Lucy yelled, coming down from her pink cloud and now running to him.

"Lucy! What about Rufus!?" Natsu asked, as he was getting ready to fight again.

"Don't worry you baka, that blast you took knocked the power right out of him. Must've taken all his energy. Speaking of which, WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING I UNDERSTAND YOU WERE PROTECTING HAPPY BUT YOU COULD'VE DIED!" She scolded, and smacked him on the head lightly.

"It's okay Luce, I'm okay. Jeez. Just a little tired. I don't think his attack was very effective," He said, trying to reassure her too, gosh, for a light smack to the head, Lucy has a different definition of 'light'.

"Well, we should head home and get the reward tomorrow. I'm tired. I don't know what you and Happy were doing down there, but Erza woke up a while ago and left to take Rufus to jail and drugged him hard. He shouldn't be waking up for the next week, but when he does, his magic will be gone for quite a while." Lucy said, trying to help Natsu up.

"Oi Flame-brain! Are you okay? You took a big hit back there!" Gray asked, trying not to sound worried.

"Yeah I guess I'm fine. Thanks for the concern." Natsu said, and pasted out in Lucy's lap, looking for rest. That hit really made him tired, not to mention he has several scratched where the magic hit him on his forehead.

'Hmm, that's weird, he didn't insult Gray, he must be too tired to try.' Lucy thought, as she and Gray carried him back to his house.

**End of Chapter One.**


	2. Ring of Fire

Nightmare

**Chapter two**

**Time Skip Night- Around Three in the morning~**

When Lucy got home, she didn't even bother changing, she just jumped into bed with her hair messy and clothes torn. She felt much to lazy and tired to do anything. Then around three o`clock, Happy came crashing into her window.

"LUSHI! Let me in! Everyone's in trouble!" He screamed, as tears were rapidly falling from his blue cheeks.

'Wha?' Lucy thought, as she opened her window. Smoke rapidly filled her nostrils.

"Happy, what happened?" She asked, trying to calm the exceed as she gave him a hug, hoping that would calm him.

"I'll tell you on the w-way, we have to leave NOW!" He cried once more. Lucy knew better than to go further, and she and Happy left. Happy in Lucy's arms as she ran out of the apartment.

"Where are we going Happy? What happened?" She panted, running down Strawberry Street.

"To the forest!" He screamed, as he buried he face into Lucy's chest.

"Ok, I'll ask again, what happened?" She asked, trying to see if her little friend was okay.

"I don't know! Hic- He was fine one moment! Hic- then another he was

m-murmuring weird stuff, and hic- he was calling your name! And then he was walking out of out h-h-house and hic- kept murmuring your name! And I didn't think, so I slept! S-So when I woke up, it was still really early in the m-morning! Hic- and I smelled something b-burning so I followed it and found a big fire in the forest we live n-near! Hic- I ran to the guild and t-told everyone! W-When we got to the source of the b-big fire, it was actually a huge c-circle of fire surrounding Natsu! He w-was laying down with scratch m-marks on his body, and h-his clothes were torn! B-But that was from the mission, so I h-had to explain that to the o-others… And when w-we got a closer look, h-he was hic- crying! W-we tried getting through t-the circle, but we o-only

g-got burned! S-So the rest of the g-guild sent me to f-find you!" He finished, continuing to bawl onto her.

'Natsu? Crying? Burning the others? What happened?' was all she could think when they found the forest.

Everything was either burned, or burning, and through the trees, she could see Elfman yelling at Natsu, who just continued to lay on the ground.

The fire ring that surrounded him though, it was huge, at least 20 feet was taking up the area. Lucy ran next to Mirajane, who was standing next to Elfman, as they were on the outskirts of the circle.

"Lucy! Thank god you're here! Something happened to Natsu! He kept screaming your name and-"

'Happy didn't mention that Natsu was screaming my name in that circle' Lucy thought, as she let Mirajane continue until she got to the point where Lucy was already filled in.

"Why do you need me –cough- here?" Lucy asked, as the smoke was finally getting to her.

"Natsu was screaming your name like something bad happened to you! So we thought something did, and we had Happy get you and bring you here." The take-over mage answered.

"Lucy-san! You need to get into that circle! If you don't calm down Natsu-kun, the flames are going to cause a bigger fire and can end up entering the town!" Wendy shouted, running toward the celestial mage.

"But you said no one could get in!" Lucy yelled, trying to get the fact that Natsu was still in the circle, helpless.

"You are our only chance! Everyone has tried and ended up getting burned!" Erza said, coming from the other side of the circle, showing her burn mark on her leg. "Gray is trying to help Juvia get out of the area. Since fire and water are opposites, it could end up killing her!" The scarlet mage yelled.

Lucy was in shock. Natsu could end up _killing_ one of his comrades? She had to get in there before anything truly bad happens.

The blond mage nodded to the others, and walked towards the circle, after giving the now passed out Happy to Mirajane.

As she walked, she tried her best to stay calm. She was now in front of where the fire lining was burning. This fire, NATSU'S fire, burned his nakama? Something really terrifying must've happened to him to take him to these measures.

As she put her foot over the fire, nothing happened. It was like she was fireproof! Lucy heard gasps from the others behind her, and ignored them as she continued to walk. Once she got to the center, she saw Natsu.


	3. They did it

Nightmares

**Chapter Three-**

**A/N: So I understand you might be confused why Lucy's "fire proof", the reason for that will come later in the story (maybe not this chapter, but the reason WILL be revealed).**

He was shaking rapidly. Tears were coming down his face like a waterfall. She could see his injuries from the previous day. He was sweating like crazy with his eyes tight shut, and his fists turning into balls. Other than that, his body looked lifeless.

She had never seen him so upset, or angry. Whichever one it was, she was going to find out.

She kneeled carefully next to the fire mage, and gently squeezed his fist.

"Natsu, can you hear me? Time to wake up, you're scaring the others," She tried to say in the calmest voice possible.

He shot up, panicking, and looking around frantically. The ring of fire died down, but not completely.

'That was easier that I thought'

He saw Lucy right in front of him, giving him a concerned look. He cried even harder than before, practically bawling and gave her a tight hug. She could feel her shirt turning wet and with the sudden embrace, the only thing she could do was stroke his pink locks, hoping he could stay calm.

"It's okay Natsu, I'm here, I'm here." She told him, giving him a small smile.

Soon enough he fell asleep in her arms, putting most of his body weight on her, threatening her figure to fall down on the ground, considering Lucy was sitting up.

Once he fell asleep, all the fire slowly vanished, leaving the guild in awe.

"Lu-Lu-chan! How'd you calm him down?" Levy asked after running to where the two were. The blond mage didn't say anything but kept petting the sleeping dragon slayer who she repositioned in her lap. 'How _did_ I do it? I didn't bring any sleeping powder with me… Did me _being _here calm him down?' She thought.

"Lucy-san! Thank goodness you're okay! How'd you get over the barrier?" Wendy called, running towards them, with Carla close behind her. "Uh… I don't know? Look, we don't have time for questions, we need to get to the infirmary and see what happened to Natsu." The blond mage commanded.

'How did I _get_ over the barrier?' She thought to herself after Happy and Carla flew him to the guild. She searched her body for any signs of burns. Thank god there were none. 'I'll just ask Natsu once he wakes up.'

Time Skip~ Inside the guild

It was thirteen hours until Natsu finally woke up. THIRTEEN LONG HOURS, making it around four in the afternoon. During those thirteen hours, the poor dragon slayer was hyperventilating so badly he needed an oxygen mask over his face, and his heartbeat was beating unexceptionally fast. They ended up having to sedate him. But when THAT didn't work, Gajeel offered to punch him unconscious, but instead got a major butt kicking from Erza because apparently, "knocking an injured person unconscious is bad". The alternative was to have Lucy hold his hand for the rest of the time. If she could calm him down once, it could work again right? Thankfully, it did. He stopped his panicky state and slept quietly, with the exception of his eyebrows looking stressed.

Everyone was happy it worked, but Lucy ended up holding his hand for five hours. Though she didn't mind, she couldn't feel her hand. Since she had nothing else to do, since she finished her two books that she brough with her, she decided to take a closer look at Natsu's injuries.

There were white bandages around his forehead with his spikey pink hair flying out, some bandages on his forearm, and a white-stained-red gauze texture-y thing wrapped around his torso, leaving his top half bare, and wearing his cargo pants.

After falling asleep for the last two hours, she woke with a startle. Not only because Natsu was waking up, but because she actually thought she lost her hand.

After stealing her hand back and massaging it a little, she looked at her partner again. He was shuffling his body on the infirmary bed slowly when he sluggishly opened his eye lids. He winced a bit dues to the bright light that hit his face, and then opened them fully in shock. The teen looked around from left to right frantically until he saw Lucy.

He practically pounced on her from his bed and absorbed her in a gut-wrenching hug. The blond girl wasn't entirely shocked, because he did this earlier this morning. "Natsu, are you okay? You gave us a big shock earlier. Happy said you were sleep talking and you burned everyone from the guild! This could've been bad. You could've seriously hurt Juvia and-" She was cut short when she heard sobbing from the dragon slayer on her shoulder.

"Natsu? Are you crying?" She asked, looking at the boy. 'Well no duh! Of course he's crying!' she mentally scolded herself. "I-I-I thought I LOST you Luce! Everyone was attacking all at o-once! A-And I couldn't pr-pr-protect you!" He wailed. "Huh? Who attacked me Natsu? When did someone attack me?" Lucy asked. 'I don't recall getting hurt _so _badly that Natsu would cry...' She thought.

She paused her thoughts when the door swung open, and Levy and the rest of Team Natsu came in. "We came in when we heard someone crying. Is everything alright Lu-chan? How's Nat-" Levy stopped when she saw Natsu's eyes. Lucy was questioning her blue-haired friend's sudden stop and followed her gaze to Natsu, when she saw his face.

When she saw Natsu's face, she almost didn't recognize it. He had pure fear in his eyes, and she noticed his sudden jerk to lean against the wall. It almost looked like he was trying to get away from them. "Natsu, are you doing alright?" Erza asked, reaching her hand to try and touch him in assurance. "St-Stay back!" He screamed. "All of you!" he grabbed a surgical knife left on a tray from his right and stuck it everyone's direction. "Natsu! What are you doing?! They just want to make sure you're alright!" Lucy chided, trying to put down his hand that had the knife in it. "NO! They _did_ it! Th-They _did_ it! Last night! They did it! They took you away from me!" He continued to scream, with fresh new tears threatening to fall out. "What did we do Natsu?" Juvia asked, peaking from the back of the group.

"They killed you Lucy! F-Fairy Tail… Killed you!" And with that he collapsed on his bed, with his weapon falling to the ground.

**End of Chapter Three **

**A/N: What do you think? Like it? Love it? Hate it? Tell me what you think! I'm having a sick day today, so I'll try to update my other stories too!**


	4. Red Is All You'll See

**Chapter Four~**

"W-What did he just say?" Erza asked, with wide eyes like the rest of her group. "He didn't just say…"

"But Lushi! You're still alive! How can that be?!" Happy squeaked, holding onto the railing of Natsu's hospital bed. "I-I-I don't know… That's not important right now though! He could've just been delusional! Right now we need to get another breathing mask on him. He's hyperventilating again!" The celestial mage ordered, picking up the knife from the ground and put it on another tray.

"Right!"

It took three long hours until Natsu started breathing normally. Even though, he collapsed, his eyes refused to close. They kept staring at the ceiling like it was starting to absorb him. None of the team expected this; to have Natsu accuse them of killing their beloved teammate! Nonetheless point a blade to them all? They needed answers quick, before Natsu got mental. They put minor restraints on his wrists, much to Lucy's dismay.

"He isn't a rogue animal! Don't put restraints on him!" She hollered at Erza who was finishing strapping Natsu's left arm. "We have to. If any of us were to be near him when he wakes up and grabs a weapon of any sorts, we can't risk anyone getting hurt." The re-equip mage answered, and switched the dragon slayer's other hand.

"But you don't know if he will do that again! Maybe he was just delusional from being asleep for too long! We could just remove anything around him that could be used to harm us and cast some sort of spell around him!" Lucy said stubbornly and folded both her arms over her chest.

"Flame-Brain's been asleep for three days in a row one time and he never acted like this. We need to take precautions even if he wakes up normal." Gray said, leaning against the door.

"There are other ways though. I don't see why you guys are acting so dramatic towards this. He just had a little outburst and collapsed. It's not like he hasn't done this before…" Lucy muttered staring helplessly at Natsu's body.

"He has." Erza mumbled, finishing tightening Natsu's right arm.

"Eh?"

"He has made an outburst like this before, four years ago. We didn't take it too seriously, so we let it be. It might've been one of the worst mistakes we've ever made." Gray answered, looking at the ground with a pained expression on his face.

"What happened?" Lucy asked, sitting down on a chair next to Natsu's bed, holding his hand.

Erza looked down the dragon slayer, and sat down in the chair across from Lucy. "Nobody likes to talk about it, especially Natsu," Erza said, "so please don't remind him when I tell you this;

When he was younger, he looked for Igneel non-stop. He would walk around town asking people if they'd seen a big dragon, only to get crazy glances. He didn't care though, as long as he could find his foster parent, he could've been named as the town lunatic for all he cared. Anyways, some men took advantage of Natsu's searching and told him they found a dragon near the south lake outside of Magnolia. And Natsu being Natsu, didn't think twice and ran out to the outskirts of Magnolia with Happy hot on his trail. But what he didn't know that they were planning on tricking him.

When Natsu and Happy got to where they told him Igneel was, he found a huge dragon corpse with blood smothered all over it. He was to young to develop his keen sense of smell to realize that the dragon was a take-over mage disguising himself with chicken blood. The guys who helped with the plan told him that we killed his dragon, and he was too naïve to look for evidence that we did it.

Poor Natsu, he didn't come to the guild for the next month so we got worried and went to check up on him. When we got to his house he grabbed a shattered piece of glass he broke and started attacking us stating that we helped kill Igneel. Luckily no one was hurt that bad, and we managed to find the people who tricked him. I'll never forget the look on their faces when they saw Makarov's face. We both ended up paying the price.

It took at least a week's long of convincing for Natsu to reconsider and apologize for assuming such a thing. But it still took him a while for everything to go back to normal. Thinking that Igneel was really dead really shook him up." Erza finished, looking Natsu with a sad smile.

"W-Why would they do such a thing! Tricking an innocent boy like that!" Lucy asked with a face full of disbelief.

"I guess it was for the laughs. But by the time we were finished with them, it was all cries." Gray finished, cracking his knuckles.

"So do you think that had anything to do with what's going on right now?" The blond asked, looking at them both. "I don't think so. He isn't as naïve as he was before. He couldn't have been tricked into thinking you were hurt in anyway. It had to be something that truly made him believe you were killed by our hand." Erza answered, looking at Natsu's heart monitor as it beeped slowly.

He started to shift in his bed

"Uh, guys? I think he's starting to wake up…" Lucy said, as she began to back up from the dragon slayer.

"Everybody! Exit the room at once! Lucy, I need you to stay by his side incase he calls for you again!" Erza commanded.

Everyone nodded and left towards the door.

When Natsu slowly blinking his eyes, and shifting up, the first thing he saw was a smiling Lucy holding his hand. "Ne, Natsu? Are you okay? You gave us quite the scare a couple hours ago, do you know what happ-" She was cut short when he pounced in her arms once again.

"I-I thought you were dead! How are you alive again?!" He muttered into her neck, with little tears forming. "It's okay Natsu, I'm fine. Fairy Tail didn't-" Natsu pulled himself off of her and looked at her with fearful eyes.

"Yes they did! I saw them! This isn't like the time I thought Igneel was dead! I _saw _them kill you! They burned you, they struck you, they st-stabbed you continuously! They hung you in front of me along with Happy! You guys were dead! D-Don't you dare tell me they didn't do anything to you! I-I saw it! I lost you! I saw their smiles at your body!" He bawled, grasping her shoulder.

'N-No way' She thought. She needed to get more information on this.

"T-They tortured me?" She asked, with tears flowing down her cheeks at the sight before her. "Y-Yes! They s-said it was _fun_! I couldn't do anything! I just stood there! I couldn't protect you! That's ten times worse than thinking Igneel was d-dead! You… Died in front of me…" He finished, and sobbed for what seemed like hours.

"I-I-I'm sorry!" He managed to say and hugged her once more.

"Natsu, none of that happened. I'm fine, the others are outside worried sick about you…" She said stroking his hair.

"They're out there?! You need to run! They could betray us again! I can't let that happen!" He said quickly and panicked.

'Wait. When did this happen? I don't recall Natsu ever seeing this… I've been with him the whole time…' She thought.

"Natsu! Stop panicking! Now, I'll make sure they don't touch us, but I need you to stay calm, it'll only startle them and make them come inside." She said firmly, and wiped her tears away.

He instantly calmed down at her confident words. "O-Okay…" He mumbled and let go of her, leaning back against his reclined bed, and held her hand. Lucy looked at him in confusion with his sudden gesture.

"I need to make sure you don't leave me." He answered, looking down at their linked hands.

"It's fine Natsu. But I need to ask you a couple questions about what happened to me. Okay? Letting it all out will make you feel better." She suggested and gave him a comforting smile.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive. When my mama past away, I talked to the maids back at the mansion to make me feel better."

"I-If you say so…"

"Okay then, now then, Natsu, when did they… Kill me?" She asked, worried about his reaction.

"T-The night after we got back from that mission that involved Rufus."

"Wait, Natsu. I wasn't hurt that night. I was at home sleeping. Are you sure this really happened?" She asked, with her suspicions beginning to raise.

"Yes! I saw you! After you died! You told me to wake up or something like that!" He said with his voice slightly raised.

'Okay, so that means he was asleep! That was I told him to wake up!' She thought, thinking she got to the bottom of his situation.

"Natsu, that night, you were found in the forest. And you had a huge circle of fire surround you that prevented everyone from getting to you. Does that ring any bells?" She asked carefully.

"That was when you died. I made a fire ring around you and Happy to prevent you guys from being hurt any further, that's when you started talking to me." He muttered, squeezing her hand at the memory.

"Is that why no one could get in the circle? Only me?" She asked once more.

"I had to make sure you didn't get hurt anymore." He said firmly.

"Natsu, I think you had some sort of nightmare. I was at home sleeping when Happy called me and took me to where you were and found you laying in the middle of it." She said, and met his eyes with concern.

"No! It was real! I felt everything! I heard everything! I smelled everything! I smelled your blood! You're blood was everywhere! It was the only thing I could smell! There's no way I can just imagine it!" He cried out leaning towards her with every word.

She pulled him close to her and leaned his forehead against hers, which caught him off guard. "Natsu, do you feel that? I'm still here, nothing happened to me. I'm fine." She said sweetly, locking her eyes with his.

"Then please. Don't leave me again. I couldn't handle the first time you died." He whimpered, holding both her hands.

She pulled apart and told him, "It's okay Natsu. It was probably just a nightmare. The guild would never hurt me."

"B-But why did it seem so real? Ever since I got that hit from Rufus, you dying was the only thing that appeared in my mind! I thought it was just me, b-but then I-I saw you hanging there, lifeless." He cried slowly, scrunching up the sheets.

"Rufus?! He must've done this to you! He might've given you that nightmare to scare you! It all makes sense! Why it seemed so real!" She exclaimed.

"So… You're saying that Rufus did this to me?" He asked.

"He must've! There's no one else who could've done this to you! That means you're okay! He just struck a nerve in your brain or something!" She said.

Erza came through the door in her normal attire. "I heard your conversation Lucy. May I talk to you outsi-"

Everything stopped. Natsu instantly froze looked at her with pain covering his face.

"Natsu? Are you okay? It was just a nightmare, we went over this." Lucy looked at Natsu who had fresh tears pouring down his tan cheeks, but didn't make a single peep.

_Natsu looked at Lucy to find blood marks covering her body, and Erza with a crooked smile. The room turned blood red. "We warned you to stay away Salamander," She said wickedly._

"Natsu! Snap out of it!" Lucy screamed, shaking him violently. He remained the same, and he stared at Erza in horror.

Suddenly, deep red cuts ran down Natsu's arms and chest. "What? How'd those get there?! No one's touching him!" She shouted frantically. "Erza! Help me! He's not moving! The cuts marks are getting deeper!" Lucy called to the scarlet –haired woman.

"R-Right!" And she slowly approached the rapidly injuring boy. He responded instantly, and jumped off the bed on to the floor, and crawled backwards towards a corner.

"S-Stop!" He cried out.

"_You can't run forever little Salamander! Little Lucy's gonna be a dead Lucy once I'm done with her!" The Erza hissed, and more marks landed on the Celestial Mage, who cried out in pain._

"Don't hurt Lucy!" Natsu screamed, with new tears appearing on his face.

"What? Snap out of it! The cuts on your body are rapidly appearing and you're going to get seriously hurt! Nothing's wrong with me Natsu! I'm fine! See?!" She snapped, and stuck her face in front of the crying teenager, blocking his view from Erza.

He stopped scurrying, and fell limp on the floor, with a small pool of blood surrounding him. "Erza! What was that?! He saw you and everything started going bezerk! Did you do anything to him?!" She shouted to the mage who just stood there with wide eyes, and a small stream water came falling from her eyes, which was rare.

"I-I don't know. I guarded your room while you talked to him and heard you mention Rufus and nightmares, so I wanted to talk to you in private and see if you had any ideas on Natsu's case. Was he like this before I came in?" She asked, and helped Lucy lift the bloody boy on to the operating table to clean his wounds.

"No! He was fine! He just kept telling me about what happened to him! But when you came in, it was like he was in a whole other world! And the cuts just started appearing!" The celestial mage answered and got a washcloth.

"So, I could've done this? Without doing anything?" She asked, giving another look at Natsu's body.

"I don't know. But the cuts got deeper the closer you got to him, so maybe it has something to do with you." Lucy answered grimly, and started cleaning the wounds.

"I'm sorry Natsu." Erza said, looking down at the boy before his eyes closed.

"_You got lucky this time Salamander, but don't keep your hopes up. Red's the only thing you'll see on her body next time." Erza said, giving him a smirk. Cackles where heard from everywhere, laughing crazily, before everything turned from red to black. Natsu thought one last thing before losing consciousness._

"_L-Lucy…"_


	5. Paint

Chapter Four~

"AAh!" He awoke with a start, and shot out of his bed with sweat beading down his forehead.

What the hell? Where was he? What's going on? He felt something fluffy under his body. _Am I on a bed? _He thought, and began feeling around his surroundings.

_Well, I can feel stuff, so I'm not alone_. He started to softly clap his hands. _I can hear, so I didn't deafen myself._ He bit himself on the tip of his fingers and tasted blood trickle into his mouth. _This is blood, so I can taste stuff_. He turned his head and took in a deep breath. _I can smell, or at least breathe, so I guess I'm fine_.

But before he could get up, he realized everything was black. Shit. Forgot to check that. He brought his hands to his face, and felt fabric over his eyes.

"What the hell am I wearing?"

Before he could take it off, a sudden hand softly grasped his wrist.

"Don't take that off Natsu."

Was that Lucy's voice? He didn't smell her, so it couldn't have been her. "Who the hell are you?" he barked, and tried resisting to the smooth hand.

"N-Natsu. Stop. It's me, Lucy. I had to cloud your senses so you wouldn't get hurt." She hassled to keep him down, in which he reluctantly DID calm himself.

He turned to the voice that was claimed as Lucy's, and cocked an unseen eyebrow.

"Why am I blind folded?" He asked, and touched his fabricated eyes.

Even though he couldn't see it, he knew Lucy well enough to know she was shocked by his question.

"Y-You don't remember?"

He heard her take a step back.

"What are you talking abou-"

Everything came back painfully. He remembered every detail.

He remembered his team killing his Lucy in front of his eyes, torturing her, and mocking him. He remembered them whipping his body and whipping Lucy's twice as harder. He saw the bloody screams, the hanging bodies, and worst, he saw Lucy's betrayed and scarred eyes, boring into his eyes in pure fear.

He clutched his head in pain, and clutched his eyes as hard as he could.

"Natsu, are you okay?" That voice. How did she seem so calm earlier? After everything that they did to her, she seemed perfectly fine! 

He grabbed what felt like Lucy's shoulders and tried to stare at her through the blindfold.

"H-How are you still alive?!" He asked, "A-After everything th-they did to you?!"

The boy felt the same comforting hand placed on his cheek, wiping away the tears he didn't know were falling through his leaking mask.

"Natsu," She said lowly, "After you collapsed, the team and I came in and did some mental experiments on you to see what was going on."

He paled instantly. "You let them in?! What were you thinking!"

Lucy gave him an apologetic smile, reassuring him she was okay. "Natsu, I can't keep telling you I'm okay if you keep interrupting me." She joked.

He let go of her, and looked down into his lap. "Sorry…"

"It's okay," She continued, "As I was saying, we did some mental experiments on you. I brought in each of our guild mates to see who you would react to, and sadly, you screamed, and panicked at every one of them."

He gave her an incredulous look, "I don't remember that."

Her only response is a finger to his mouth. "Uh uh Natsu, I can't continue if you keep interrupting."

After another apology she went on. "To answer your statement, we put heavy Memoripōshon (1) on you so you would be too unconscious to remember anything when you woke up. Now where was I? Oh yeah, you reacted negatively to everybody, so we conducted another trial. We tried blocking your senses one at a time to see if you reacted to that. Luckily you weren't reacting negatively to any of them except for your vision. You even said their names without hesitating or threatening them. That's why you have a blindfold on. Master put a locked spell on it so you wouldn't be tempted to take it off. Only we can."

Mentally grateful for her explanation, he was confused by one minor detail. "Then why are the rest of my senses all fucked up?"

He heard a tiny giggle.

"Well, um it's a funny story actually. You see, when Wendy was casting the Memoripōshon on you, you were still delusional so you knocked her over and accidently overdid the potion on yourself."

Hmm. That was weird. At the mention of her name he didn't freak out, or have any troubling thoughts. Maybe sight _was_ the thing triggering his visions.

But wait. How did it even get to this point?

"Lucy, do you know why I'm seeing this? Why I'm seeing you die every time I open my eyes? Why I can feel bandages on my body?"

The atmosphere ran silent. He could here the birds chirping, the angry villagers yapping at each other, but not his beloved celestial mage. Wait. Did he just say _beloved? _That potion Wendy gave him must be messing with his mind, so he brushed it off.

"Uh… Luce? A-Are you still-"

"Y-Yeah. I'm still here."

"So do you know why I'm like this?"

Silence welcomed them again. Before he could ask again, she spoke.

"Natsu," She held his hand in assurance, "W-We don't know what's wrong with you. Something triggered your unsettling thoughts into your head. All we can do is hope it goes away on it's own, until then, you're too unstable to function."

What? Did she just say _unstable_? There was no way that could happen. That meant he couldn't go on missions! He had to go with her on missions to make sure she was okay! So many things could happen if he wasn't there to protect her! Of course she was much stronger and could protect herself, but chances can't be taken!

"Luce! I'm not unstable! I'm okay! Really!" He pleaded helplessly, grabbing a hold of her shoulders.

Next thing he felt was two delicate hands placed onto his own, pushing him away.

"No Natsu, you aren't. You set another one of your protective fire circles in the guild and could've hurt a lot of people I didn't come rushing in. I volunteered to stay with you for the next few weeks until we find out how to cure you. So don't worry."

He frowned. "Why would you do that? Can't you just help out at the guild instead of staying in the infirmary?"

Next thing he knew he felt small tears started dripping onto his lap and made him gasp. "Lucy, why are you crying?"

"N-No. I'm okay. I'm not crying! Just uh-drooling!" She stuttered.

He gave her an I'm-not-buying-it look. "Don't try taking advantage of me Luce, my senses may be fucked up, but I can smell your tears." He murmured softly.

Lucy picked up his hand and hesitated to put it on her cheek.

He almost yanked his hand back. Did he feel, bandages? Damp ones at that. That could only mean that there was a lot of blood leaking through.

Before he could ask she placed his hand on various places on her body, including her forearm and feet. They were all damp bandages.

"Wha-what are you doing?" He mumbled.

She put his hand in his own lap before sighing.

"Natsu, whatever I'm about to tell you, I want you to know that it wasn't your fault. You can't afford another one of those monster episodes." Lucy said calmly.

Monster? Fault? Oh no.

He gave a shaky nod, allowing her to presume.

"When I said that you set off another one of those defense fire circle things, you burned the entire infirmary room, and almost the whole guild. We evacuated everyone. Juvia and Gray intervened, and cooled the rest of the guild. But they couldn't get to your room. It was too risky."

He what? But how did Lucy get in? Surely the flames protected her like last time right? B-But then what were the bandages for? Oh god. Did that mean-?

"Since you were heavily sedated you didn't understand what we were saying, or what you were doing. I-I didn't get in on time, and the fire was at its peak. But I had to get to you, so I kept going. The last thing I remembered was you screaming and holding my hand. Next thing I knew, I woke up in a bed parallel to yours looking like I dipped myself in red paint."

**A:N/ Okay! Sorry that I stopped it there. That was a terrible chapter-ending. I'm really sorry I haven't been updating! I held all my stories on a flash drive and took it with me to Tennessee last month and lost it! Luckily my friend's aunt found it and mailed it back to me today, but luck wasn't on my side. My flash drive caught some sort of virus that wouldn't let me retrieve my files so I have to re-write everything! Oh well, now you know of my absence… and just so you know, **_**I WILL CONTINUE ALL MY STORIES! I WILL TRY TO DO ALL OF THEM WEEKLY!**_** So did you like this chapter? Review, favorite, or follow if you wish for me to continue! **

**Oh and before I forget. Everything that has happened in my stories (including this one) happens for a reason. For example: Rufus's attack didn't happen for nothing and he will return;) **


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